"The Pacific" - can it possibly live up to expectations?

[Hondo]

I agree and I also won't watching the last episode again, while the story played out, it did seem uneven, or disjointed as you say but over all i was overwhelmed at the end. All soldiers in all combat feel the same. The home coming, job search, who hasn't felt left alone after being a killing machine? I've seen good people, friends return from Vietnam and go crazy while home.
if there is a God, I hope & pray for our troops, a safe return.

I watched the series all the way through, but I was essentially underwhelmed: I will not be rewatching this every time I stumble on an episode while channel surfing like I do with BoB. While technically masterful, and with unbearably tense and hypnotic battle sequences, I thought the series' storytelling was disjointed and very weak on character. (E.g.: I couldn't recall who many of the men summed up in the postscript what-happened-to-them sequence were.)

The series partially redeemed itself for me in the finale, which was completely character-driven, and featured many extremely moving scenes. (Some owing an awful lot to The Best Years of Our Lives, but if you're going to borrow, you might as well borrow from the best!)

It was fascinating seeing Leckie readjusting to civilian life, Lena and the mourning Basilone family, and especially Sledge - whose character arc finally fulfilled what seemed like a draggy set-up in the earlier episodes, with his doctor father fearful that, like the Great War vets he'd known, Eugene would return emotionally damaged. Hell, yeah.

It was a strong ending to what - for me, anyway - was a largely disappointing series.

 

[swinggal]

I really enjoyed it but I also did not expect it to be like Band Of Brothers either - which many did. Being from Australia and hearing my grandfather and my great uncle's accounts of the war in the pacific I could relate. Such different wars even though they were occurring at the same time and Australians troops were a big part of it also.

I was quite proud of the Melbourne episode and many of my Americans friends were impressed and surprised to know that one of the main streets in the Melbourne CBD (Flinders St) was actually shut down for a few days for filming that episode and the old trams brought in. Was very authentic indeed.

Yes the series had a very different feel to BOB and the character development was tackled in another way, but the Pacific war was so unlike the European one. I liked the last episode because many people don't think past the end of the fighting and how hard it would have been to return home after seeing such horrors and having friends die in front of your eyes.

A great Australian series you guys might want to watch is called 'Changi'. It is about the Australians, Brits, Dutch and Americans living as POWs under the Japanese in Singapore during WW2 and I always remember at the end how the Aussie POWs were told (when they got home) to just 'forget it all that had happened and get on with things!" That was all the advice and counselling they received after returning from years and years of horror and death.

 

[JimWagner]

My father's generation were the WWII vets. My father, most of my uncles, and most of my neighbors of that age were all veterans.

I can remember looking through a photo album belonging to one of my neighbors who served on the USS Enterprise and was on it in 1945 off Kyushu, Japan when a kamikaze blew a large hole in the flight deck. He could barely talk about it 10 years later and was still having a difficult time with civilian life.

Combat scars run deep.

 

[swinggal]

Yep, certainly changes people.

My Great Uncles; Percy and Harry were not the same when they returned home after WW2. My dad said that Harry had seen his best friend beheaded by the Japanese on the Kokoda Track. Harry was once fun and outgoing but he was reserved and very quiet for the rest of his life after the war. Percy, who never drank before the service, became as alcoholic which really affected my nana.

My Pop (dad's dad) was an army mechanic in the pacific in WW2. There is a photo (that I now have) of his battalion that used to hang on the wall at their house. When I was a kid dad told me that Pop had told him that one day the whole battalion was called together and made to line up. Someone walked down the line and told 'that half' of the men that they were going to Kokoda. My Pop was in the other half and he never saw any of his friends again. Whenever I look at the photo...i always remember that story.

 

[Benny Holiday]

A fitting conclusion to a tremendous series. I have always had a great deal of respect for veterans of any war but I am in awe of those who fought in the PTO.


On Memorial Day I am sure I'll think of Sledge, Leckie, Basilone, Gunny, Snafu and what they endured and I will have a greater appreciation for everyone who served in the PTO. And, I am sure that I will not be the only one who feels that way.

JDG

Epsiode 10 was screened in Sydney last night. I watched every episode and I couldn't agree more with you JDG. I thought it was great that the series started being shown a week and a half before ANZAC Day. It helped me appreciate even more the amazing sacrifice that was made by so many for our freedom today.

 

[swinggal]

Epsiode 10 was screened in Sydney last night. I watched every episode and I couldn't agree more with you JDG. I thought it was great that the series started being shown a week and a half before ANZAC Day. It helped me appreciate even more the amazing sacrifice that was made by so many for our freedom today.

Here here.

 

[bwildered]

Yep, certainly changes people.

My Great Uncles; Percy and Harry were not the same when they returned home after WW2. My dad said that Harry had seen his best friend beheaded by the Japanese on the Kokoda Track. Harry was once fun and outgoing but he was reserved and very quiet for the rest of his life after the war. Percy, who never drank before the service, became as alcoholic which really affected my nana.

My Pop (dad's dad) was an army mechanic in the pacific in WW2. There is a photo (that I now have) of his battalion that used to hang on the wall at their house. When I was a kid dad told me that Pop had told him that one day the whole battalion was called together and made to line up. Someone walked down the line and told 'that half' of the men that they were going to Kokoda. My Pop was in the other half and he never saw any of his friends again. Whenever I look at the photo...i always remember that story.

Try reading "King Rat" by James Clavell... a good look at prisoner of war treatment

 

[swinggal]

I may just do that. I have read quite a few books about POWs during WW2. "War behind the wire" is agood one about Australia POWs. "Mates and Memories" is another good one about the Thai Burma Railway.

In 2007 while on holiday in Thailand I visited the River Kwai Bridge and Hellfire Pass as saw first hand how tough it must have been for everyone who was forced to live and work there

 

[AmateisGal]

I just finished watching the entire series and really enjoyed it. I know it wasn't like the Band of Brothers format, and I was okay with that. I liked getting into the minds of the main three soldiers - Leckie, Basilone, and Sledge - and seeing the war through their eyes. I especially appreciated the last episode which showed how they dealt with the aftermath of war and getting on with their lives. Some could pick up right where they left off; others couldn't.